Under furious debate was whether a further SecurityCouncil resolution (the so-called "second resolution") was necessary to authorize war, or whether 1441 and preceding resolutions sufficed to legitimize military enforcement of the UN's disarmament aims.

Of the permanent, veto-holding members of the SecurityCouncil, France, Russia, and the People's Republic of China wished the inspection period to be extended, and for no military action to go ahead without a further UN resolution.

This section provides information on the membership of the SecurityCouncil, including terminology, elections, presidencies, and the organization of Council committees, as well as profiles of Ambassadors serving on the Council.

The Council makes formal decisions (such as Resolutions, Presidential Press Statements, and Presidential Assessments) in public sessions but meets much of the time in closed "informal consultations." A glossary clarifies the Council's many ways of meeting.

A key institution is the NGO Working Group on the SecurityCouncil, that meets regularly with Council ambassadors.

The SecurityCouncil has the authority to investigate any dispute which might escalate to cause international tension, to recommend action for mitigating such disputes, to recommend to the General Assembly the appointment of the Secretary-General and new member states, and, with the GA, to elect the judges of the International Court of Justice.

In addition, the Council is authorized by the Charter to call on United Nations members to apply economic sanctions and other measures not involving the use of force to prevent to stop aggression and, in certain cases, to authorize member states to take military action against an aggressor.

While the SecurityCouncil can authorize the deployment of troops, neither the Council nor the UN equips or provides the troops and member states cannot be forced to supply troops if they choose not to do so.

The subsequent exchange of letters between the UN and Iraq, agreeing to the continuation of the programme under the terms of this resolution, is dated 5 July 2001.

The text of the SecurityCouncil debates are available for 26 June 2001 and 28 June 2001.

Commends the Secretary-General for securing commitments from the Iraqi government to fully comply with weapons inspections on his mission to Baghdad, and endorses the memorandum of understanding (S/1998/166) that was signed on 23 February.

www.casi.org.uk /info/scriraq.html (3517 words)

UN Security Council Resolution 1566(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-08-20)

United NationsSecurityCouncil Resolution 1566 is an anti-terrorism resolution adopted on 8 October 2004.

It follows UNSecurityCouncil Resolution 1373 which was adopted as a response to the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

In adopting resolution 1566, the Council set up a working group to consider recommendations on measures to be imposed against "individuals, groups or entities involved in or associated with terrorist activities" not already identified by its Al-Qaida and Taliban sanctions committee.

The documents including material from the General Assembly, the SecurityCouncil and the Economic and Social Council., date back from as early as 1962, and were available in print only.

I am very pleased to be with you at the official handover ceremony for the digitized UN documents file made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan for inclusion in the Official Document System of the United Nations.

For much of the UN’s history, important documents were not kept in digital form, for the simple reason that it was pens and typewriters and typesetters that were used to draft these documents, not computers" observed USG Tharoor.

The language used by China's UN Ambassador Wang Guangya appeared to be the strongest yet by Beijing.

There is wide support for expanding the SecurityCouncil, whose composition reflects the post-Second World War era when the United Nations was created, to represent the global realities today.

But the most difficult step is a final resolution to change the UNCharter, which not only requires a two-thirds vote but also approval by the SecurityCouncil's five permanent members who wield veto power - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.

www.cbc.ca /cp/world/050601/w060116.html (520 words)

The UN Security Council: From the Cold War to the 21st Century(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-08-20)

The Council engages in burden-sharing with regional organizations: the Organization of American States in Haiti and Central America; in Europe, the European Union, NATO, OSCE [the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe] and the Council of Europe; in Africa, the African Union and a number of subregional organizations.

The Council members' awareness that those unsatisfactory security arrangements involved a substantial element of risk for the East Timorese and for UN personnel left the Council with an obligation to maximize its own influence to ensure that Indonesia fulfilled the security obligation that it had insisted on retaining.

I illustrate that in the case of East Timor because the rhetoric of the Council at the end of 1999 and the beginning of 2000 regarding its indignation at the crimes that were committed in East Timor and the determination that those responsible should be brought to justice was impeccable.

Security Council members deny meeting Kerry - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics - October 24, 2004(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-08-20)

U.N. ambassadors from several nations are disputing assertions by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry that he met for hours with all members of the U.N. SecurityCouncil just a week before voting in October 2002 to authorize the use of force in Iraq.

After conversations with ambassadors from five members of the SecurityCouncil in 2002 and calls to all the missions of the countries then on the panel, The Times was only able to confirm directly that Mr.

Kerry never met with the entire U.N. SecurityCouncil could be problematic for the Massachusetts senator, as it clashes with one of his central foreign-policy campaign themes — honesty.

Nations compete keenly for council membership, maybe because of the prestige attached, or the chance to advocate an issue that is in the national interest.

The SecurityCouncil attaches great importance to preventing armed conflict in the first place, but once a dispute has flared its first aim is to seek a diplomatic solution.

More generally, the SecurityCouncil has been criticised for not taking forceful action until a catastrophe or conflict unfolds, even when this might have been predicted, as in the Rwandan genocide of 1994.

Direct meetings are now being held between the President of the SecurityCouncil and troop contributing countries, allowing the latter to convey their opinions directly to the Council.

He argued that the credibility of the UN as a whole would be enhanced if the relationship between the Council and the Assembly were more equitable.

Watt also suggested that a UN Parliamentary Assembly, while it would probably not initially have a great deal of contact with the Council, might be effective in making the work of the Council better known.

The SecurityCouncil was formed after World War II and the winners - the US, the Soviet Union, China, Britain and France - gave themselves permanent seats with a veto.

Its reform is one aspect of wider UN reform being considered by a high level panel formed by the Secretary General Kofi Annan last year.

They say: "The SecurityCouncil must reflect the realities of the international community in the 21st century." They also say that they have "the will and the capacity to take on major responsibilities with regard to the maintenance of international peace and security".

The United States and other countries objected to continued Syrian interference in Lebanese affairs, and the United NationsSecurityCouncil passed resolution 1559 calling for non-interference in Lebanese affairs, for disarming of militias and for Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon in accordance with previous UN resolutions.

Subsequently, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned that Syria was not complying with the resolution.

Requests that the Secretary-General report to the SecurityCouncil within thirty days on the implementation by the parties of this resolution and decides to remain actively seized of this matter.

ADDIS ABABA, 11 Oct 2005 (IRIN) - The African Union (AU) Peace and SecurityCouncil has decided that the issue of the "deteriorating security situation" in the western Sudanese region of Darfur be refered to the UNSecurityCouncil.

IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

This section looks at the original Council action to impose the sanctions and the debate that followed, later erosion of support for the sanctions, negotiations between Libya and the US-UK over the organization of the trial, aspects of the trial proceedings, and subsequent issues about lifting of the sanctions.

Various SecurityCouncil members want to see the inactive sanctions against Libya formally put to rest, but the US and UK say that they will oppose an end to sanctions until the Lockerbie trial is over.

The UNsanction against Libya was imposed to blame suspects of the Lockerbie bombings.

PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo batted for the entry of the Philippines as a non-permanent member of the United Nations (UN) SecurityCouncil before the General Assembly and cited the country's commitment in the fight against terrorism.

According to the statement, the Philippines is set to replace Syria in the UNSecurityCouncil.

The Philippines is also actively assisting the work of the UNSecurityCouncils' Counter-Terrorism Committee in fighting the specter of global terrorism, and is in the process of ratifying the important international conventions on terrorism, the President was also quoted as saying in the statement.

SecurityCouncil Resolution 1325 was passed unanimously on 31 October 2000.

Resolution (S/RES/1325) is the first resolution ever passed by the SecurityCouncil that specifically addresses the impact of war on women, and women's contributions to conflict resolution and sustainable peace.

Bearing in mind the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the primary responsibility of the SecurityCouncil under the Charter for the maintenance of international peace and security,

There are compelling reasons to consider India’s appointment as a permanent member of the United NationsSecurityCouncil (the “Council.”) At the present time, the Council does not fully represent the world population, such as developing countries, and anachronistic in character.

The present composition of the Council, particularly the permanent members´ category, is weighted heavily in favor of industrialized countries.

India can help the UN to work towards the problems of poverty, illiteracy, urban sprawl, natural calamities etc. India being the sufferers of these evils can contribute a great towards formulating a workable approach at the UN on these issues.

"The members of the SecurityCouncil considerthat their meeting is a timely recognition of the fact that there are newfavourable international circumstances under which the Security Councilhas begun to fulfil more effectively its primary responsibility for themaintenance of international peace and security.

The resolutionsadopted by the SecurityCouncil remain essential to the restoration of peaceand stability in the region and must be fully implemented.

At the same timethe members of the Council are concerned by the humanitarian situation ofthe innocent civilian population of Iraq.

Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Council at regular intervals on the implementation of this resolution, including reports from the leaderships of the international civil and security presences, the first reports to be submitted within 30 days of the adoption of this resolution;

Deployment in Kosovo under United Nations auspices of effective international civil and security presences, acting as may be decided under Chapter VII of the Charter, capable of guaranteeing the achievement of common objectives.

The international security presence with substantial North Atlantic Treaty Organization participation must be deployed under unified command and control and authorized to establish a safe environment for all people in Kosovo and to facilitate the safe return to their homes of all displaced persons and refugees.

www.un.int /usa/sres1244.htm (1758 words)

China: UN Security Council ânot a board of directorsâ(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-08-20)

The statement declared the countries as âlegitimateâ candidates for permanent membership on an expanded SecurityCouncil, whose enlargement is one of major topics during the ongoing assembly debate opening Tuesday.

Noting that the U.N.âs membership has increased nearly four-fold since its founding in 1945, the statement said the 15-nation council âmust be expanded in both the permanent and non-permanent categories, including developing and developed countries as new permanent members.â

The SecurityCouncil is composed of five permanent members -- China, Russia, the United States, France and Britain -- and 10 elected members which have a two-year term.

On May 22, 2003, the SecurityCouncil ended economic sanctions against Iraq with Resolution 1483, calling for the creation of a “Development Fund for Iraq,”(DFI) to administer proceeds from the export sales of Iraq’s oil, as well as funds remaining from the UN Oil-for-Food Programme and other assets seized from the defunct regime.

Critics have charged that billions have disappeared from this fund and governments have called it a “fl hole.” Though the UNSecurityCouncil mandated an International Advisory Monitoring Board to oversee these funds, transparency was limited, while corruption was apparently widespread.

Shortly before the outbreak of hostilities, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan stated that use of force without SecurityCouncil endorsement would "not be in conformity with the Charter" and many legal experts describe the US-UK attack as an act of aggression.